{"id":877244,"date":"2026-09-02T09:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T09:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/877244\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T09:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T09:16:12","slug":"australia-news-as-it-happened-number-of-australians-missing-in-nepal-tibet-revised-to-38-one-sydney-swan-cleared-as-a-suspect-in-police-probe-chalmers-defends-tax-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/877244\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia news as it happened: Number of Australians missing in Nepal, Tibet revised to 38; One Sydney Swan cleared as a suspect in police probe; Chalmers defends tax changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australia\u2019s biggest business group has warned MPs against restricting data centre construction, telling a Senate inquiry the country \u201cneeds a data centre plan, not a data centre panic\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry\u2019s (ACCI) submission to the inquiry into artificial intelligence and data centres says blanket restrictions, moratoriums or one-size-fits-all rules would drive investment offshore without solving energy, water or planning constraints.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar pictured at Parliament House last year. \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/12a3e29583f5dd6b667be86fd8a7b54beca656dd.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/>ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar pictured at Parliament House last year. Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n<p>It comes as communities across the country fight new developments over water use, noise and consultation, and as the inquiry\u2019s chair, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, argues for a moratorium on new builds until regulation catches up.<\/p>\n<p>ACCI is calling for \u201csource-neutral\u201d energy decisions for data centres, arguing a diverse energy mix delivers better prices and reliability. That position aligns it with the Queensland and NT governments.<\/p>\n<p>Chief executive Andrew McKellar said Australia could seize its share of the AI opportunity, but only if economic settings were correctly set.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also must ensure Australia has policy settings that enable the responsible growth of data centres, not stand in their way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s biggest business group has warned MPs against restricting data centre construction, telling a Senate inquiry the country&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-877244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}